The present invention relates to a carrier for gene detection, a method for detecting validity of interferon therapy on individuals, a gene detecting apparatus for detecting validity of interferon therapy on individuals, and a gene detection kit for detecting validity of interferon therapy.
In recent years, patients infected with hepatitis C viruses (to be called HCV hereafter) have rapidly increased, leading to a great social problem.
Although interferon therapy has been revealed to have a certain effect on hepatitis C as well as on other viral illnesses, interferon therapy is not effective to all the infected patients, and there are not a few patients who has no sensitivity to interferon and cannot benefit from interferon therapy. Continuation of interferon therapy to such patients who exhibit no sensitivity to interferon would not only cause side effects such as fever and anemia to the patients but also delay initiation of other expected therapies.
Therefore, there has been longed for a method of predicting whether interferon therapy is effective or not to an HCV-infected patient to be treated, but such prediction has not at all been possible.